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Business balks at immigration deal

Some business groups are gearing up for a lobbying battle on Capitol Hill. | AP Photo

“A guest worker program that fails to provide a sufficient number of visas to meet market demand as the construction sector recovers will inevitably make it harder to fill critical labor openings and make it impossible to secure the border,” the groups said in a statement.

The statement was signed by the Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated General Contractors of America, Leading Builders of America, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Electrical Contractors Association and the National Roofing Contractors Association, which represent all aspects of the commercial and residential construction industries.

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The future flow deal was billed as the last major hurdle for the Gang of Eight to cross before putting out legislation as early as next week.

This isn’t the first time that the program has held hostage the immigration overhaul. Senators had hoped to come to an agreement before the two-week recess, but could not after labor and business opposed the product. After days of working to get closer, it had appeared there was a final agreement.

But since key business and labor negotiators and lawmakers signed off on the deal late last week the response by the business community has been tepid at best.

ImmigrationWorks USA, a coalition of business groups, was one of the only others to comment. The group’s leader Tamar Jacoby praised the progress, but also pointed to the size of the program and the construction industry provisions as problematic.

“The Republican Senators in the Gang of Eight did the best they could under the circumstances. But the deal is skewed by union demands – and several of its most ingenious, most thoughtful elements may not work as intended on the ground, primarily because the program is too small,” Jacoby said.

International Franchise Association CEO Steve Caldeira also told POLITICO he is concerned about the size of the program and economic indicators used as triggers.

“Obviously we would like to see a number higher than 20,000 workers at the start of the program, particularly given the woefully inadequate 66,000 number in the H-2B program fills up almost immediately,” Caldeira said, noting that is why moving the legislation through regular order is so important. “If Americans want the jobs that employers need to fill, they would be first in line to get them and there would be less need for foreign workers. But the need will always exist to some degree, and a guest-worker program that permits a market-based supply of lower-skill workers is essential. Without such a program, no immigration reform bill will be worthy of the name.”